Technical Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to parking systems and particularly to methods and systems for assisting in legal parking of vehicles. The present invention more particularly relates to a method and system for providing mapping a parking zone, storing and alerting a user for a legal parking.
Description of Related Art
Due to an increase in number of vehicles and restrictions related to an allowance of parking spaces or zones that allow a driver to legally park his or her vehicle, parking has become increasingly difficult to find, especially in large cities such as New York City (hereinafter “NYC”). In cities like NYC, there may be a large number of reasons for restricting where people can park and a high demand for parking spaces. The local parking ordinances and rules frequently regulate an allowable space and duration for a vehicle to be parked along public roadways.
Since finding a legal parking is an effective way to avoid a parking violation, it is therefore often that the drivers accidentally or unknowingly commit parking violations due to a lack of alternative parking options. The drivers spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to find a legal parking space by randomly driving around, which causes more traffic congestion. The constant congestion and lack of parking spaces paired with the continuing increase of vehicles on the road also exacerbates the current rate of parking violations. However, in order to save time and efficiently use a legal parking space on the street and off the street, a driver would benefit from being notified of other drivers who know they will be leaving at the time another driver is searching for a parking space or at a certain time in the near future.
Since public parking or government public garages are substantially cheaper than commercial parking, it is understandable that a driver tries to find parking primarily on the street or within a public garage. It is very important to notify the driver when and where they may park by precluding illegal parking spaces to avoid parking violations and save time to find legal parking. Although, since the street parking is owned and managed by the government or government agencies, they do not have the resources or the ability to notify the drivers where legal parking spaces on the street are available. It is a more realistic and efficient approach for drivers to help each other look for legal on street parking.
Additionally, the drivers would benefit from being made aware of the various options for on-street and off-street parking to make informed decisions in order to park where there is legal parking. If a driver is advised about a legal parking space, the chances of a parking violation will be reduced substantially.
In the view of foregoing, there is a need for a method for legally parking a vehicle with a real inter-vehicle or driver communication with dynamic space vacancy information sharing. Also there is a need for a system to facilitate an in-time communication among drivers and a parking space monitoring to avoid congestion due to random movement of the vehicles for a parking space.
The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein, as detailed below.